


New & Improved

by meggitymeg



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Character Study, Denial, Inspired by Photography, Loss, M/M, Off-screen Relationship(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-06
Updated: 2013-09-06
Packaged: 2017-12-25 20:32:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/957316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meggitymeg/pseuds/meggitymeg
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the mess with the Alpha pack, with the Darach, is finally over - after Derek departs Beacon Hills sans forwarding address - Stiles finds himself with a lot of time on his hands, and even more on his mind.</p><p>Just a short ficlet inspired by <a href="http://31.media.tumblr.com/121ddb5700e062eb9308b8936afd9897/tumblr_msppmmW4Sf1rqbsh4o1_500.jpg">this photo</a> of Dylan O'Brien that's making the rounds on tumblr.</p>
            </blockquote>





	New & Improved

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first piece of fiction I've written in over seven years - consider yourself forewarned.

After the mess with the Alpha pack, with the Darach, with Heather and the other sacrifices, is finally over - after Derek departs Beacon Hills _sans_ forwarding address - Stiles finds himself with a lot of time on his hands, and even more on his mind. 

What he needs is a distraction.

After a week and a half of shooting virtual zombies with Scott and arguing about Affleck as the next Batman with strangers on the internet, Stiles decides to take advantage of being on the lacrosse team and starts visiting the weight room in the mornings before class. Even if things are quieter on the supernatural front than they have been since before Scott was bitten, he figures it’s only a matter of time before the next installment of ‘run for your (puny, human) life’. That’s what he tells his dad, anyway, when the Sheriff comes home from a night shift at 6am and catches Stiles on his way out of the house, iPod in hand. If the Sheriff notices his son's bed hasn’t been slept in, he keeps it to himself.

The full moon comes and goes, with nary a hint of wolves, and Stiles falls into a routine. 

It's a crisp autumn Friday afternoon, and Stiles finds himself at Macy’s, having realized his last decent pair of jeans is, well, no longer decent, thanks to a late-night run-in with a Jack Russell and a chain-link fence (and boy is there a story there, but not one he’s ever going to be telling anyone else). He tosses the shopping bags in his room when he gets home and heads back downstairs to reheat a bowl of turkey chili (dinner for one, third night in a row, fifth time this week). If, when he empties his purchases onto his bed later that evening, half-a-dozen soft, fitted, black t-shirts fall out alongside his new jeans instead of his usual hoodies and button-downs, well, that’s why they created the term ‘impulse buy’, right? It’s the only explanation that makes any sense, he tells himself, _because Stiles Stilinski is a man who loves his plaid_ \- steadily ignoring the fact that the racks of plain tees are located in the far corner of the men’s department, well away from the sales registers.

Another full moon passes.

One morning, Stiles catches a glimpse of himself in a mirror at the school weight room, hair hanging in his eyes, escaping from the sweat band that he hoped would give him a retro 80s-era Michael J. Fox vibe (or so he told Allison when he spotted it in the outdoor sports shop, the day he accompanied Allison to buy some new gadget that will probably, eventually, cause the death and/or maiming of someone who's intent on causing HIM death and/or maiming), but in reality makes him look more like that kid from Juno. He stops by the drugstore on the way home, buys a tube of industrial strength hair gunk, figures he’ll gel it up so it’ll stay out of his way, one less thing to worry about. He starts avoiding mirrors, working the gel in by feel, tries to forget the phantom sensation of different dark, spiky hair under his fingers. It almost works.

Autumn gives way to winter, and Stiles goes down to the thrift shop on South Beacon, finds a warm leather jacket to ward off the chill while he scrapes the frost from the windshield of the Jeep.

He feigns indifference when the whispers about his new appearance start to circulate in the school hallways, but makes a mental note of the appreciation in Danny’s frank appraisal, the calculation in Lydia’s cool assessment, the confusion in Scott’s sidelong glances, the pity in Allison’s soft smile. He hand-waves their questions, their concern. He plasters on a grin and tells them all that he’s fine, he's great, he's never been better.

The only one Stiles is fooling is himself.

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me on tumblr under the same username, where I mostly post about my cats, my sister, and Teen Wolf. :)


End file.
